Randi's Favorite Things From 2013

So I realize I didn't make a lot of posts in 2013, so I think I'm just going to do a nice little round up of things you should know about that were awesome.

1. Paramore by Paramore- After losing founding Farro brothers, it was questionable whether or not Paramore could continue as a band. Not only did they continue, they excelled past any of their previous works. This album manages to use sounds from all of their past albums while still adding new textures and styles. Not to mention the ukulele interludes are pretty cool too.
Key Tracks: Ain't It Fun, Fast in My Car, Anklebiters, Part II, Grow Up, and (One of Those) Crazy Girls.

2. Thor: The Dark World- If I had to pick between Marvel's two big releases this year, this one beats Iron Man 3 by a long shot. Which is not a slight, they're both great blockbuster flicks (although I will say I like IM3's after-credits scene better). But character development, Christopher Eccleston as Malekith (spelling is a weird thing in the comic book world, friends. Forgive any errors), Kat Denning's side stealing sass, and the incomparable Tom Hiddleston as the even more incomparable Loki made this movie completely amazing. May the Marvel gods smile upon the Thor franchise, and grant us another movie, especially if it was as much fun as this one.
Best Scene: Loki's backseat driving, or the ending.

3. Catching Fire. This is literally the most perfect book to movie adaptation there had ever been. The dialog is accurate, and if the best nitpick the fans can come up with is about a watch, you know you've done good. Jennifer Lawrence is absolutely amazing as Katniss, and newcomers Jena Malone and Jeffery Wright shine as well. And of course, Woody Harrelson steals scenes as inebriated yet whip smart mentor Haymitch. Everything about this movie is way better than the first, and a pitch perfect adaptation of it's source material. Director Francis Lawrence is signed on for the two part finale of Mockingjay, and I'm ready and willing to see what he's got in store for us.
Best Scene: Johanna stripping down in the elevator or anything containing Jennifer Lawrence.

4. Pure Heroine by Lorde. And the most clever album name of the year goes to this New Zealand singer whose dubious beginnings in the recording industry have nonetheless paid off in this mesmerizing debut. It's a very sparse album, usually just a pulse and some synths with layers of her voice, and it deals with the themes of corruption and the upper crust better than most of the artists who have attempted such a thing (Looking at you, Lana Del Rey). The tone of the album is the same most of the time, making it a bit monotonous towards the middle, and none of it is as commercially friendly as radio hit "Royals", but it is a very promising start.
Key Tracks: Team, Ribs, Glory and Gore, A World Alone, and of course, Royals.

5. Kinky Boots. Based on a little seen 2006 Brit-com movie about a shoe factory, on the edge of bankruptcy, turning to making boots for drag queens to stay afloat. It's a funny, emotional, and groovy story with even groovier music and the performance of a lifetime by Billy Porter, playing drag queen Lola. The score (written by Cyndi Lauper) is very pop and a lot of fun, but also packs the emotional punch needed for the story. It manages to be fun and be a sort of "moral of the story" type of show without being preachy. Also, the choreography is particularly good (when it involves conveyor belts, I'm in) and the set design is very clever. Stark Sands and Analeigh Ash also play a great couple, and their respective character solos are pretty much amazing. Find the bootleg on youtube, and prepare to be amazed, although the show will be doing a tour soon.
Key Tracks: Not My Father's Son, The History of Wrong Guys, Soul of A Man,  Land of Lola, Raise You Up/Just Be

6. Pacific Rim. I'm amazed I managed to restrain myself for this long. Pacific Rim was pretty much my favorite thing that happened this year at the movie's, and if you want to read more about all my feelings about it and such, I have a review here. But in short, a great female hero, a wonderfully diverse and skilled cast, and GIANT MONSTERS EATING THINGS.

7. Welcome to Night Vale. A podcast that takes after H.P. Lovecraft and makes you feel like you're part of this small desert community, where a giant glow cloud runs the school board, interns die like red shirts in Star Trek, the dog park is unknown territory, librarians are evil, and nobody really knows who owns this radio station. Our narrator Cecil gives us the scoop on everything in this whacky little town. Combining witty satire, flat out weirdness, and an indie music spot, Welcome To Night Vale is one of the coolest, and weirdest, things I've ever had the fortune to listen to.

There are probably a lot more things that should go on this list, but this is just a taste. Here's to 2014!
-Randi

Movies I'm Really Looking Forward to In The Next Few Months

It's that wonderful time of year where the pyro and explosions of summer are a blissfully low volume as they spin in my DVD player. As much as I loved the kaiju-fightin' Khan catchin', Mandarin impersonatin' of the movies this summer, I'm ready to get to some good indies and Oscar contenders. It's like my job or something. Anyway, before my Southern accent makes a sudden re-appearance, let's get down to business.



1. Ender's Game (November 1st). Orson Scott Card's sci-fi classic is finally going to the big screen. It has a super stellar cast, with Harrison Ford, Viola Davis, Ben Kingsley, Asa Butterfield, so on so forth (I'm nearly positive I've already enthused about this movie in another post). I am a little less enthusastic about Gavin Hood (X Men Origins: Wolverine) directing, but hey, one bad movie does not a bad director make. So far, all talk of the movie has been focused more on Card's admittedly sketchy anti-gay politics, but that ain't gonna stop me from seeing this movie.

2. Inside Llewyn Davis (No wide release date yet)- The Coen Brothers (True Grit, Fargo) take on 1961 New York with a great cast and an even better soundtrack. Especially looking forward to seeing Stark Sands in an off-Broadway role (he's currently Charlie Price in one of my new favorites, Kinky Boots).

3. The Book Thief (November ???). Geoffery Rush and Emily Watson star in an adaptation of one of my favorite books pretty much ever. The Book Thief is told from the point of view of Death. Sound pretentious and boring? Not really. The voice of the novel is extremely engaging, and the story that unfolds matches it's intensity. Since the book works so well in it's original format, it's going to be interesting to see how it can work on just as much of a powerful level as on the big screen.

4. Catching Fire. Cinna yadda yadda yadda Katniss does stuf yadda yadda. Everything I could possibly say about my anticipation for this movie has been said, both by me and other people with better writing skills. Moving on.

5. Thor 2. I have so many questions about this movie. Will the Game of Thrones director make it darker? Is Loki going to die? How will Jane fare in Asgard? Will we get ANY Darcy? Will I finish my Loki in Suttutgart cosplay in time? Probably not, but as for the rest, we'll just have to wait and see.

6. This doesn't count but.... SHERLOCK SEASON 3 IS COMING TO PBS ON JANUARY 19th GET PUMPED.

7.  The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug. With an overly pretentious title. this next Hobbit movie is make it or break it for me. As much as I cried seeing the title sprawled out on the big screen after eight, count 'em eight years of waiting, I'm still not sold. I really enjoyed Unexpected Journey, but like it's parallel Fellowship of the Ring, it was mostly exposition and getting to the part where the getting gets going. Jackson has got to bring it with this next chapter to convince the new generation that Hobbits are still worth their time. To be fair though, Benedict Cumberbatch playing a vindictive dragon is enough for me.

8.Only Lovers Left Alive. (Still no official date) Why so many cheesy titles this year? Anyway, Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton are two vampires who have been in a relationship for pretty much forever. They take an exisential  walk through the modern day world. Good music ensues. Apparently almost nothing happens in this movie, but I'm interested to take a look.

9.Wolf of Wallstreet. You said DiCaprio and Scorsese and I listened.
-Randi

A Short-ish Breakdown of What Is Wrong With Heroes of Cosplay

• Syfy’s reality show centered around a past time of geeks around the world caused a stir right from the beginning. The season finale featured a group cosplay contest that quickly went South for many reasons. 
• First, some fans were upset that the Alice: Madness Returns group featured an inaccurate Cheshire Cat and a fight between Alice and Yaya Han’s Red Queen that never ocurrs in the game. This is not a central part of the discussion of the finale at the moment, but some people have brought it it up. 
• To the point: While the judges were deliberating, apparently a group of Doctor Who cosplayers, who did all eleven doctors, started shouting some rude things.
• These rude things may or may not have been spliced together by Syfy.
• Then, later on backstage, apparently some nasty comments were thrown about and, while most people blame the Doctor Who group, made both the HTTYD and DWho’s look pretty rude.
• Not even an hour after the episode premiered (The Who group winning something, The Alice group winning something, and the HTTYD group walking away (I think) empty handed) one of the ladies from the Who group posted something like the following:
• The Who group was frustrated for a myriad of reasons that day. One being that not only them, but everybody else, had only found out that the contest required a skit the day before the contest. They rushed to put something together.
• This of course gives Yaya and the Crabcat girls unfair advantage as they had pre-planned sets, dialog, music, lighting, and special effects.
• Which leads to the fact that Syfy is probably rigging all of the contests.
• The Dwho group says that while they did make some impolite remarks, Syfy cut together some other remarks that they did not actually make to pump the drama, and that the Crabcat girls came after them with the cameras in tow to cause drama.
• The Crabcat girls asked for fans to cut Dwho a break as they were just having a bad day.
• However, probably the biggest issue is not even one of opinion here. 
• It all comes back to Syfy for trying to manufacture drama and using coventions, usually a peaceful place for geeks to hang out and enjoy things together, as their own personal reality TV playground.
• Not to mention the incredibly illegal point of telling everyone they’re shooting a documentary, meaning that nothing will be tampered with or edited to make it seem different, and shooting a reality tv show, where words are rearranged, drama is manufactured, etc.
• Hopefuls for the cosplay contest were told that if they didn’t agree to be on the show, they couldn’t compete. To be told that unless you’re okay with going on a doctored TV show after working hard on elaborate costumes seems like a no-brainer.
• However, Syfy telling everyone it’s a documentary than shooting a reality show is not only creatively a betrayal, but also illegal because there is the business of signing a waiver, which gives over all creative rights to Syfy and whatnot. 
• Nobody in the history of Heroes of Cosplay has said that they have had to sign a waiver.
• That’s actually really illegal.
• So I think that if we’re going to blame anyone, it should be 51 Minds, the production company, and Syfy, for putting words in mouths and taking over conventions they had no legal right to mess with.
• -Randi

Yeah, I'm Gonna Talk About The VMA's (But not just Miley)

Alright, in the midst of all the controversy over a certain child star's fall from what was not even grace, I'm going to review an entire awards show that was, frankly, probably one of the weirdest things I've seen in my life. BULLET LIST TIME!

-Let's start from the top (and leave Miley at the bottom) with Lady Gaga. I really liked her performance up until the sea shell bra, which just made me kind of uncomfortable. Her vocals sounded good, and her various costumes changes were pretty cool. I loved her set too. Let's give it a three and a half out of five.

-20 minutes of pure perfection by Justin Timberlake. He has such a gift for performing and really made that clear. One disappointment: The Social Network cast was not in the video for Suit and Tie. SORRY MY PRADA'S AT THE CLEANERS.

-Kanye was.....not offending????? I don't know, I couldn't really understand anything he was saying, but his performance was pretty low-key for him. Props, I guess.

-Bruno Mars was lackluster at best, although his vocals were quite good. I didn't mind his performance.

-Katy Perry was just meh as well. I don't think her voice sounds great live and I just feel like I've heard Roar like six bajillion times before Roar even came out. It not only bears an almost plagiarist resemblance to Sara Bareille's "Brave", it really just sounds like ten other songs that came out before Brave, and so on so forth. If Perry had a more diverse style, I'd probably like her more.

-Kevin Hart was not funny. Why they felt the need to bring him out twice is beyond me.

-Taylor Swift also needs to get out. She was really rude about winning her award and taunting ex Harry Styles,  who was sitting right there. She also mouthed shall we say rude things when One Direction won their surprisingly single award for the night. For shame, T Swizzle, for shame.

-Alright, okay, I'll do it. I'll talk about Miley Cyrus. I know you've all been waiting for it.

Look, this is not the first time Miley Cyrus has done the whole "I'm not a middle schooler in a blonde wig singing for a two camera sit-com on the most corporate sell out of corporate sell out channels." She did it with "Can't Be Tamed", and clubbing, and taking risque' photos for Vogue, and so on, most of which was still while she was on the Disney channel. But never on the scale of what she did on live TV. I'm not condoning her actions, and I think what she did was disgusting. I do however think the concern that "small children were watching" was pretty obsolete. MTV marketed this show to older teens like everything else they do, I really doubt a WHOLE lot of small children were watching. Also, Hannah Montana almost never airs anymore, and I haven't seen merchandising for it in ages. Most truly younger kids probably don't hold Miley Cyrus in regard at this point.

That being said, I really wish I could say I didn't see this coming. I would like to be as shocked and surprised as the rest of you. But I figured this was coming, not on the scale that it came, but something like this was always coming.

That being said, I would like to also point attention to equally disgusting cohort Robin Thicke. Between all the butt-less twerking and condom-esque bikini business, take a look at the lyrics to Blurred Lines. Those blurred lines are the lines of sexual consent. THIS SONG IS ABOUT RAPE. And not only that, it's glorifying rape. What Miley did was gross, but what Robin Thicke does is just as bad. And yet, we only talk about what Miley did. Is it because she's woman? Is it because Robin Thicke is not as much of established figure in the pop community, or a former child star? All are valid questions. I've been trying to point out the absolute absurd obscenity that is Blurred Lines ever since it hit top of the pop charts. Make no mistake, Miley was not the only one presenting an image of distaste and ugliness.

-But now I'm going to end this on a bright note. Like I said, One Direction were largely booed and hated upon at the awards, for absolutely no reason. Sure, they're a heavily merchandised boy band, but hey, what have they done wrong? Their songs are catchy, they're very sweet, down to earth people, and are incredibly kind to their sometimes overbearing fan base. And apparently, Lady Gaga agrees with me, because this happened when they started booing:


But before she left, she went backstage, and told the boys that......



"I just want to tell you that they deserve every bit of success they have and not to let these people humiliate them. I put that bullying in my own show because I wanted to comment on that … and I want to go now. Already I do not want be here, because I will not be in a room where people are like that. They deserve that. "

Say what you will about seashell bras and meat dresses, but you cannot deny the heart under that has good intentions.

-Randi

Pacific Rim Is The Best Movie of the Summer and You Need To See It Now

Yeah yeah, I know, pretty much everybody is back in school, and it's not SUMMER anymore it's just really hot.
But guess what's probably still playing at your local theater? Pacific Rim. And guess what else? It's the best movie I've seen in FOREVER.

But first some context. I grew up on old monster movies, lots of Tokyo-destroying and crazy impossible science. I more frequently messed up my dollhouse with a Godzilla figure than actually played pre-computer SIMS with it. So Pacific Rim was right up my alley from the beginning.

The story is not the strong point of the film, but it's serviceable. In 2020, Kaiju, giant monsters along the lines of Gamera and the like, are destroying cities across the world. To stop them, the world creates Jaegers, giant robots with the capacity to take down the Kaiju. Each Jeager is piloted by two people who "drift" and share a collective memory in order to pilot the robots. They move, think, and feel as one person. Our main hero, Raleigh Beckett (Charlie Hunnam), blonde, American, and golden in every way, lost his brother in the Jaeger Gipsy Danger a couple years prior to the story. He's been travelling around working on "the wall" that provides menial labor jobs to millions, and is supposed to keep Kaiju out, but really isn't working. The Kaiju have evolved and have learned how to fight back against the Jeagers, and the project is going to be shut down soon. It's then that Raleigh is brought back to the Jaeger program by Stacker Pentacost (an on top Idris Elba, hardly ever better). Awesome ensues.

One of the many great things about Pacific Rim is it's great characters. Raleigh is not even the focal point. Perhaps the greatest in this movie is Mako Mori. Everyone, prepare to meet your new queen. The great thing about Mako (played by the wonderful Rinko Kikuchi) is that she is a fully developed character, with a storyline that does not revolve around a man,  and she kicks butt on her own terms. She has real pathos and a great backstory. This is Mako's movie, we just had to market it as a movie about a white American man so it would sell. And while that's a shame, it's still a wonderful thing to see an Asian woman leading a movie so greatly.

But there's not a bad performance in the movie. Frequent Del Toro collaborator Ron Pearlman (ugh, spelling) is back, and turns in a great, comic relief preformance. Burn Gorman makes yet another mark on American cinema in the past year. If I bring up Idris Elba again, we'll be here all night. And Charlie Day is show stealing, as Newt Gieszler, a kind of sillier version of Ben Whishaw's Q. Don't get me wrong, he's his own character though. He's one of my favorites as well.

The design and visual effects of the movie also deserve an essay. Very creative, clean cut, and great to look at. I'm especially fond of the Mako flashback, and the stark contrasts of colors there.

Please just go see this movie, you won't regret. A talented cast, great action scenes, and wonderful characters. You won't regret it.

-Randi

Heroes of Cosplay (And My Problems With It)

I'm a cosplayer. It's something I enjoy doing, I'm not competitive about it, I just do it for fun. That being said, I really respect others who make their stuff from scratch and create something truly amazing, and compete at conventions and the like.

Bearing that in mind, let's talk about this show.

So SyFy decides, hey, nerds are cool now, cosplay is becoming cooler, let's put a show about it on after Sharknado made a metric crap ton of money.

The format of the show is really weird. It's one part documentary, one part reality show, one part competition show, but it doesn't work. And also, there were a lot of really staged drama bits and obvious editing to make some of the people look  more bitter about other contestants.

And also, I had no idea who Yaya Han was before this show, but oh my gosh, she was really rude on the show! And of course, we have to keep in mind that this might be because SyFy producers are clearly looking to amp up the drama, but some of the things she said to people on this show were completely not okay.

Especially when Ms. Han berated contestents for running out of time TO PLASTER THEIR HEADS AND MAKE HORNS for a cosplay and going out to buy some horns, and that it made them lesser cosplayers for doing so. I'm not going to lie, a good eighty percent of the things I use in my cosplays came from a store. I've had to modify some things, and I'm working on a "from scratch" cosplay. But to think that cosplayers have ranks, and that buying stuff demotes you, is completely ridiculous.

Also, I had no idea "professional" cosplay was even a thing?

I guess my problem with the show is that it reflects a really tiny minority of the cosplay community that go to really extreme lengths for competitions. If the show were more varied, not only in that respect, but also in featuring more men and other types of women, I might like it a tad bit better.

But yeah, I really don't feel like this show reflects cosplay at all, especially not the great times I've had with it.

-Randi

In Which I Discuss The 500 Days of Summer Complex

If you've been around the Internet lately, you've probably seen little things like

this

or this

or this

or maybe even this


And I have a really really really really big problem with it.

As much as I love a good John Green novel, or The Perks of Being A Wallflower, there's this weird culture that's developed around those things and their counterparts.

It's the concept that sadness and angst and self-loathing are beautiful and will make some other self-loathing and angsty person fall in love with you.

This goes hand in hand with what I like to call the 500 Days of Summer complex, which is based off of this quote from the film.

              "Just because some girl likes the same weird crap as you do doesn't make her your soul mate".
The movie depicts a relationship that looks sweet and romantic on the surface, but it's actually pretty messed up under further inspection. Tom, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character, is projecting his ideal relationship onto Summer (Zooey Deschanel), who explicitly stated that she wasn't looking for a relationship. Tom takes offense every time Summer asks for time alone, and their relationship is all consuming to the point of obsession. Like I said, not exactly healthy.

The 500 Days of Summer complex is the idea that the basic plotline of the film is the healthy relationship outline for "damaged" teenagers looking for a relationship. Unfortunately, they often don't realize the destructive details.

This culture of self-loathing and the 5DOS complex just seem to go together. And that is not okay.

Remember kids, your sadness is not beautiful. You have to be your own hero, and make sure YOU are the one who is taking care of you. Living life in fear and loathing is the worst possible way to spend your teenage years, or any years in your life. I know it's hard, but we need to lose this glamour on sadness and depression. Go be your own hero.

-Randi